Intel official: ISIS sees conflict with US as “inevitable”

posted at 9:21 am on August 15, 2014 by Ed Morrissey

Looks like the jayvee team got moved up to varsity after all. CNN grilled State Department deputy Brett McGurk on ISIS after an intelligence official told them that ISIS had become “a credible alternative to al-Qaeda” and planned on an “inevitable” conflict with the United States. Furthermore, ISIS has a lot more potential for metastasis as jihadis from around the world have flocked to its banner in Iraq and Syria, many of whom may come home to continue their terrorism if ISIS is not extinguished in its efforts.

Say, just how did ISIS get from the jayvee team to the big leagues anyway, CNN’s anchor asks McGurk. “Did the United States fail to recognize the threat of ISIS?” McGurk insists not, which leaves the impression that “jayvee” must be a term of respect in the sophomoric White House:

Actually, the impression left from Obama’s “jayvee” comment was that the threat wasn’t serious, which is not coincidentally the impression left from Obama’s handling of the situation, too. McGurk wants to re-engineer that dismissive comment and the ridicule of those taking concern over ISIS as a global threat into some sort of deliberate strategy of containment, which the explosion of ISIS across Iraq makes into an even bigger joke than the “jayvee” remark was from the beginning. CNN’s contact in the intel community just confirms the reality that McGurk and the White House have denied until now:

The Islamic State terror group is now “a credible alternative to al Qaeda” that is “expanding its presence” with foreign fighters returning from Syria, and possibly Iraq, to their home countries, a U.S. intelligence official said Thursday.

The official, who declined to be identified due to the sensitive nature of the information, has direct knowledge of the latest intelligence on the group, also known as ISIS or ISIL.

According to an assessment, the group has grown in size since the spring and its takeover of Mosul in northern Iraq as more fighters from around the world have mainly traveled to Syria to join its ranks.

The United States believes that while the group remains largely focused on its brutal takeover of large areas of Iraq, there is also an “expansion of its external terrorist ambitions.”

CNN follows up this morning by reminding viewers that the airstrikes hailed by Barack Obama yesterday as an effective counter to ISIS expansion have actually done little to change anything on the ground:

“As far as many see,” Barbara Starr sums up, “no siege has been broken.” McClatchy confirms that in their report on the status of fleeing Yazidis on Mount Sinjar:

Humanitarian aid workers warned Thursday that it was too soon to declare the U.S. mission to aid Yazidi refugees in northern Iraq a success, noting that at least 100,000 residents who fled the Islamic State’s capture of Sinjar now crowd cities and refugee camps and will need humanitarian assistance for months to come.

There is no prospect that Islamic State militants will be pushed from Sinjar soon _ the only long-term solution to the Yazidi displacement.

“We don’t know exactly how many are still out there, it’s just too widely dispersed an area,” said one international aid worker who spoke anonymously because he did not have approval from his group’s media relations office. “But what we know is over 100,000 people are going to need to be cared for, for the foreseeable future at least. And that’s on top of what was already a massive crisis in the rest of Iraq with over 1 million people displaced from their homes.”

The comment was in response to President Barack Obama’s declaration that U.S. military actions in northern Iraq had broken what he called the siege of a desolate mountain range where tens of thousands of Yazidis had fled after the Islamic State captured the nearby city of Sinjar.

At least we’ve found out who the jayvees in Kobe Bryant jerseys are, though.

Breaking on Hot Air

Blowback

Note from Hot Air management: This section is for comments from Hot Air's community of registered readers. Please don't assume that Hot Air management agrees with or otherwise endorses any particular comment just because we let it stand. A reminder: Anyone who fails to comply with our terms of use may lose their posting privilege.

“Our strategy is…shaped by a deeper understanding of al Qaeda’s goals, strategy, and tactics,” Brennan claimed. “I’m not talking about al Qaeda’s grandiose vision of global domination through a violent Islamic caliphate. That vision is absurd, and we are not going to organize our counterterrorism policies against a feckless delusion that is never going to happen. We are not going to elevate these thugs and their murderous aspirations into something larger than they are.”

“Our strategy is…shaped by a deeper understanding of al Qaeda’s goals, strategy, and tactics,” Brennan claimed. “I’m not talking about al Qaeda’s grandiose vision of global domination through a violent Islamic caliphate. That vision is absurd, and we are not going to organize our counterterrorism policies against a feckless delusion that is never going to happen. We are not going to elevate these thugs and their murderous aspirations into something larger than they are.”

That’s just a bit of an understatement. Al Qaeda is puny and weak compared to ISIS. The Regime has had the intelligence on them and has done nothing but watch them grow. Couldn’t even be bothered to properly arm the Kurds.

Then how about taking the silk glove off and instead wear the mailed gauntlet? These piddly air strikes against a lone Toyota technical here, a couple of dudes with a knee-mortar over there, it’s stupid.

Hit the ISIS savages with the shiite that makes them fear every minute, that makes them run like startled deer every time a plane appears anywhere near them. Roast them with napalm like they’re rabbits on a spit, concuss them into jelly with thermobarics, send their pieces flying with GBU’s, and drop a MOAB or two jus to let them know we think they’re worth the cost.

Thank a lot, Sophie. Just when I was feeling confident in the administrations savvy, you drop this bomb that shows what idiots are leading this country. :-) If I were a Muslim in Iraq, I would join ISIS immediately if I had any desire to safe my butt.

“Our strategy is…shaped by a deeper understanding of al Qaeda’s goals, strategy, and tactics,” Brennan claimed. “I’m not talking about al Qaeda’s grandiose vision of global domination through a violent Islamic caliphate. That vision is absurd, and we are not going to organize our counterterrorism policies against a feckless delusion that is never going to happen. We are not going to elevate these thugs and their murderous aspirations into something larger than they are.”

al-Qaeda and ISIL/ISIS shared the same goal, a worldwide Caliphate, but the latter chose a more traditional path.

Rather than carrying out terrorist strikes, ISIS has adopted the plan of the First Caliphate; build an army, and use it to roll up kingdoms like rugs.

That was the way the Caliphs of al-Andalus (Spain) ended up in a battle at Tours, in southern France, in 732 A.D.

Al-Qaeda never had a standing army. ISIS, on the other hand, reminds me of the old joke about Prussia; rather than being a nation-state with an army, it’s an army that owns its own nation-state, or at least keeps “acquiring” them.

If The One and his cronies don’t think that’s a threat, I have this lovely bridge I’d like to sell them. It’s in Brooklyn.

It’s obvious that the real JayVee team is the obama administration, and the whole world burns because of that. The ‘smartest man in the room’ is really the man who just thinks he is the smartest man in the room.

Intel official: ISIS sees conflict with US as “inevitable”
posted at 9:21 am on August 15, 2014 by Ed Morrissey

Jihad is as old as Islam, and has plagued the U.S.A. since the end of the Revolutionary War…

In 1784, Congress authorized American diplomats John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, and Thomas Jefferson to negotiate with the Muslim terrorists. [18] Negotiations proceeded, and in 1786, John Adams and Thomas Jefferson candidly asked the Ambassador from Tripoli the motivation behind their unprovoked attacks against Americans. What was the response?

“Our strategy is…shaped by a deeper understanding of al Qaeda’s goals, strategy, and tactics,” Brennan claimed. “I’m not talking about al Qaeda’s grandiose vision of global domination through a violent Islamic caliphate. That vision is absurd, and we are not going to organize our counterterrorism policies against a feckless delusion that is never going to happen. We are not going to elevate these thugs and their murderous aspirations into something larger than they are.”